A poll released on Monday from the Pew Research Center shows that international confidence in President Trump is lower than in either Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Those numbers, unlikely to matter much to American voters, do matter for U.S. standing abroad and the ability of Trump and his administration to push for what is good for America.
As support for Trump — particularly confidence that he will “do the right thing regarding world affairs” — drops, the U.S. loses credibility as a leader. In the poll, respondents reported 27 percent confidence in Trump, 30 percent confidence in Putin, and 34 percent confidence in Xi. Of the leaders asked about, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had the highest marks, with 52 percent of respondents saying they were confident that she would do the right thing.
That means that when it comes to trade policy, countering declared enemies, and championing human rights, among other issues that have been key to U.S. policy, other countries are likely to fill the power vacuum.
Although some indicators point to an emerging coalition of leaders working together to “save the liberal world order,” others point to the rise of leadership from China or Russia.
Either way signals a loss in U.S. dominance on the world stage with serious economic, political, and humanitarian impacts. In the short term, other countries may be less likely to side with the U.S. when it comes to foreign policy and trade, making accomplishing Washington’s goals more difficult.
The long-term consequences are much more serious. The more credibility Trump loses today, and the more authority that he elects to abdicate, the harder it will be to regain standing. Once the U.S. has stepped down, the countries, allies or not, that take up those positions won’t be so quick to cede authority back to Washington.
The same poll from Pew, however, does show that views of the United States, if not our president, are still more favorable than views of China. The caveat to that support is that China is widely perceived to have rapidly gained influence and is quickly gaining ground compared with the U.S. in terms of economic power. That should be a warning: if America continues to support Trump’s isolationist policy of “America First,” then that broad support will also likely shift toward China.
In short, people of the world still like America, just not Trump.
Trump, and especially his administration, should aim to preserve that former part. The last-minute trade deal that allowed the United States Canada Mexico Act to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement was a good reminder that compromise and agreements can and should be reached to the benefit of all. Similar efforts should be made to reconcile already implemented tariffs and policies that unnecessarily target our allies while further negotiations must be pursued with countries that, as Trump puts it, “treat us unfairly.”
Polls, after all, are indicators of the future, not a path set in stone. The U.S. would do well to take these numbers seriously and recognize the consequences they foreshadow.
